Volitional regulation of the supplementary motor area with fMRI-BCI neurofeedback in Parkinson´s disease: A pilot study

It is hypothesized that a dysfunction of the supplementary motor area (SMA), secondary to a deficit of the nigrostriatal dopamine system, partially contributes to the symptomatology of Parkinson´s disease (PD), i.e., akinesia. In this pilot study we investigated the effect of real-time fMRI neurofeedback based volitional up-regulation of the SMA on hand motor performance of one PD patient and 3 healthy volunteers. The effect of learned self-regulation was evaluated with speeded, bimanual, sequenced button-pressing trials, assessed immediately after each baseline and up-regulation block. Our pilot results indicate that volitional up-regulation of SMA is accompanied by slowing of sequenced button presses.